


Well, That Escalated Quickly

by DilynAliceBlake



Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe, Kryptonite's effects on Clark, M/M, Name of your soulmate on your skin, Red Kryptonite, Soulmates, soulmate
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-05-23 14:28:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6119272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DilynAliceBlake/pseuds/DilynAliceBlake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The full name of your soulmate is on your wrist in your first language.  Unfortunately for Clark Kent, AKA Kal-El of Krypton, he can't remember his.  The name is unreadable for so long that he practically forgets about it, never mind that someone out there might just be looking for him in all the wrong places.  Picks up where Clark goes to ask Lex about borrowing a car.  I haven't seen Smallville in four years.  Forgive my fandom heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Call me Kal.”  The words roll off of Clark’s tongue with more smooth confidence than they have any right to when Lex’s world just started crashing down around him.  He rubs his inner left wrist, clenching his teeth in the face of what this could mean.

“Is that short for something?”  The question is icy, the answer almost assured.

“Kal-El.  It’s my birthname.  My _real_ name.”

That confirmation hurts.

“Is it me, then?  You just don’t want _me_?  Not that I can blame you, I’m no catch, but-”

“What are you on about, Lexy?”  His curiosity seems genuine, if only passing.

Something is wrong with Clark.  He’s acting to self-assured, too _cocky_ for the farm boy Lex is used to dealing with.  That thought gets shoved aside in the face of the utter humiliation he feels.

“Do you have any idea how long I _looked_ for you?  How many resources I devoted to hunting you down?  Did you think it was funny, knowing I didn’t have a clue, asking me for _dating advice_?”

Confusion sweeps over Clark—Kal’s features.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Incensed, Lex shoves himself away from the desk and storms around to Clar- Kal.

“THIS!  I’m talking about _this_!”  He yanks the wrist cuff down, exposing the high schooler’s Soulmark while he is too surprised to do anything to stop it.  Kal looks as if he is about to be mad, but shock washes any other expression away.

“I can read it now,” he murmurs.

Lex looks down at the odd language, and at Kal’s statement his temper cools.

“You couldn’t before?”  He verifies.  He has to know for sure, to be certain that he hasn’t been being toyed with for this whole rollercoaster of a friendship.

“Never.  When I was very young, I must have been able to, but…”  He looks up at Lex, wonder creeping into his eyes.

“It’s _you_.  All this time, it was _you_ Lexy.”

Despite the unfamiliar nickname, Lex can see some of the old Kal (Clark?) peeking through.

“Lexy?”  He tries to break the intense atmosphere, but it backfires in a rather miraculous manner when Kal nibbles his bottom lip and looks up through his lashes coyly.

“It’s short for Sexy Lexy.”

“I’m surprised you can say that without blushing.”

“I would have to say something a lot more incriminating than that to blush about it, Lexy.”

The billionaire coughs and attempts once again to change the subject.

“I’m sorry I thought you knew.  I know you wouldn’t keep something like that from me.”

“I’ve lied to you a lot, when I didn’t want to.  I can understand why you might think that.  But I can’t always let my parents decide what’s best for me.”  He grabs Lex’s arm and guides his hand to the symbols etched onto his skin.  “This proves that they don’t always know what’s best.”

Lex traces the foreign script that must spell out his name, warmth traveling through him at the contact.

“I want to tell you the truth…”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ here.”

“I want you to know that I’m doing it because I really trust you, and you deserve to know.  Not because some rock is influencing my decisions.”

Kal slides the class ring of his finger and presses it into Lex’s hand.

“Here, Lexy.  Put that somewhere safe.  Preferably lead lined.”

Lex wants to ask questions, but now that he knows he’s going to get the answers ( _from his soulmate, no less)_ the urgency is faded.

He has someone bring him a lead lined box surprisingly quickly, and once he and Kal-El are alone together once again Lex takes note of the younger man’s apparent discomfort.  Despite himself, worry sidles in.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just these clothes, is all.  They don’t really feel _me_.”

“I’m sure I have a spare outfit of yours still in the guest bedroom.”  Relief thrums through the Luthor heir that it’s something so simple.  

“No,” Kal shakes his head.  “I don’t think that flannels would be any better.  They’re part of my camouflage, I guess you could say.  I’m through with lies and disguises around you.”

Now that he mentions it, it’s easy for Lex to see.  Though some of the previous untamed ferocity is gone from Kal’s stance, he doesn’t seem overly clumsy, isn’t slouching to seem smaller or shifting uncomfortably.  He seems relaxed, not afraid to take up space or draw attention to himself.

“You really have been trying to be invisible,” Lex breathes, and thinks it’s such a _shame_ , because Kal-El so clearly _isn’t_ Clark, but he wore awkward so well that even Lex was fooled.

“Do I know you at all?” he wondered.

“More than anyone else,” shrugged Kal.

It occurs to Lex that since this so obviously that blushing oblivious innocent, he doesn’t have to play the wise but distant older brother.

“What about something of mine?”  The idea of seeing the boy in his clothes sparks something pleasant within Lex.

To his utter surprise, Kal apparently finds this solution to be quite agreeable, stepping back to shed the duster coat and shirt immediately.

“You alright there Lexy?  You look a little gobsmacked.”

Based on the twinkling in his eyes, Kal-El is _teasing_ him.  Lex is _not_ flustered, but the only logical way to even the playing field is obviously to kiss Kal dizzy.

 

**A/N: I've marked this as a multi chapter WIP because I feel like it could be built on, and I've even thought of a scene or two more.  It's more of a 'just in case I decide to come back to it' than a declaration of this fic's incomplete status.**


	2. Chapter 2

After some kissing and light petting in the middle of Lex’s office, Kal ends up in a pair of sweatpants and a tee shirt that no self-respecting Luthor would be seen within five feet of, let alone wearing.   Lex thinks seeing Kal in a shirt that small is worth the concession of dignity that admitting he owns such an outfit takes.

Kal spends the day telling him about what it was like growing up so terrified of being found out to be different, and Lex trades him stories about growing under Lionel Luthor’s unending scrutiny. 

He holds Lex’s hand in his and whispers about how much he always hated lying, and Lex tells him about being bullied and boarding school and blackmail. 

They snuggle together on the sofa and Kal tells about the different things he’s used his talents for; lighthearted stories of running faster than the bus to avoid being late, and lifting an entire entertainment center to get something that rolled under it.  In return, Lex shares the oddest memories of his wild Metropolis years, and about how as a young child he and his mother would sometimes prank the serving staff.

Finally, Kal tells Lex the story of that day on the bridge from his point of view, complete with the admission of his origins, and how the only time he feels like maybe he isn’t so much of an outsider is when he’s with Lex.

“No matter what I do, what problems I come to you with, you always treat me like I’m normal.  My parents, they treat me like a silly little kid half the time, and put the weight of the world on my shoulders the rest.  Sometimes, I think that if people find out about me, they’ll all hate me, and that’s just as bad as any of my dad’s lectures about science labs.”  Kal leans his head agains Lex’s shoulder, worn out from an emotional day.

“You’re not a freak, Kal.  You’re amazing.  And not just because you can run faster than I can see, or shove your hand down a garbage disposal.” Kal quirks a smile at that.  “What’s amazing about you…Is your heart.”  Lex coughs awkwardly.  “Well, it’s been a very long, very trying day for the both of us, and I’d say it’s time to go to bed.  Tomorrow I’d like to hear all about why you stormed in today acting like a first class rebel, not that I minded terribly.”  Lex is still testing boundaries flirting in their new roles, but he decides that there’s no reason to withhold complements after being called Sexy.  “Seeing you in that outfit was no hardship.”

It seems understood without saying that they’ll be in the same room, and that the only thing they’ll be doing in the same bed that night is sleep.  Kal suspects that the only reason he isn’t in a guestroom is because now that he’s finally found his soulmate, Lex doesn’t want to let him out of sight unless absolutely he has to.

Cuddled together surrounded by a truly impressive number of thrown pillows, Kal feels like maybe his life may finally start to fall into place.  Then he kicks himself for thinking it, because he’s just guaranteed that something will go wrong tomorrow.  He falls asleep memorizing the beat of Lex’s heart.

 

**a/n: u kno it wont take long before johnathan figures out where clark ran off too ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

Kal wakes to Lex running his fingers through his hair, and drifts drowsily for a moment.

“Your dad called.”

Kal doesn’t even open his eyes.

“I knew it,” he grumbles.

“You knew your dad called?”

“No, I knew something was bound to happen to interrupt my ‘things are going well for once’ streak.”

Lex laughs, and tugs lightly at a handful of dark strands.

“Get up, Farmboy, I want to see if aliens have morning breath.”

It’s Kal’s turn to laugh at that, and he rolls, pinning Lex’s wrists above his head and leaning down to rub their noses together.

Lex looks flabbergasted.

“Did you just? That is the most wholesome thing anyone has ever done while they have me pinned to a bed.”

Kal gives a sweet smile, and for a moment Lex is taken in.  Then suddenly only one hand is gripping his two, while the other scurries down his ribs with spiderlike finger movements, and Lex is thrashing.

“No, no, NO TICKLING!” Lex shrieks and attempts to buck his soulmate off, tragically unsuccessful in this endeavor.  Soon tears of laughter fill his eyes, and he decides the only thing to do is resort to bribery for his escape.

“I told Cook you were over, breakfast is probably ready!”  Lex thinks he has reason to shout.  He’s being held victim by an extraterrestrial.

Kal freezes and tilts his head.  Presumably he can hear dishes being put onto a table, because in the next moment Lex is free from the adorable menace's mean ministrations.

“Tell no one of what happened here,” Lex says solemnly.  “I can’t have my weaknesses getting out.”

Kal finally concedes to kissing him, but they still make it down before breakfast has time to properly cool, so Lex calls it a win-win.

 

**a/n: next chapter, another call from you know who, and i'll be clearing something up that contradicts canon.**


	4. Chapter 4

Over breakfast, Kal explains his latest argument with his dad, and about how the ring made him feel.

“I guess it was kind of like being drunk or high.  All the things I usually worried about didn’t matter so much, all of a sudden.”

Lex nods, looking pensive.

“I agree with you on the ring, Kal.  You weren’t exactly _setting out_ to buy a mind altering substance, and you have the right to choose how you spend your money.”

They hadn’t put the wrist cuffs back on, and every now and then Lex would reach across the space between them to stroke the strange symbols adorning Kal’s skin.

“I just don’t understand why I was suddenly able to read the marks.”

“Do you have any memories of before you came to earth?”

“No, I’ve never--”

“No, not before yesterday, Kal.  It’s pretty apparent, since you were surprised by the spaceship in the cellar- that sounds like a B movie title, you know- since you were surprised, you obviously didn’t remember then.  Do you have any memories _now_?”

Kal seems to seriously consider it as he takes another bite of  his eggs, before a look of wonder comes over him.

“I- my mother singing… Lara, she used to sing a rhyme to me about the different positions in government.  My father was head scientist, left hand advisor, and my uncle was king… Why do I remember that now, Lex?”  He frowns.  “I used to try for hours to remember anything, and couldn’t.”

Internally, Lex was jumping up and down squealing about how his soulmate was alien royalty, prince of a planet unknown in space uncharted.  Externally, he was calm, collected, and supportive.

“It’s possible, in your strive to be normal, you repressed any memories of your origins.  If you were around four when you came to earth, then it makes sense that you should have known at least the alphabet and basics of the language.  So when your fear of being notably different left, your memories returned.”

Lex tried to contain his questions about the nursery rhyme for the moment.  There would be plenty of time for that later.

Then the phone rang again, and Lex sighed, giving Kal a look that made clear that they would be talking more about this.

It was now, unfortunately, a decent enough hour that he couldn’t conceivably be sleeping and so must answer the phone.

“Hello, Mr. Kent.  Yes he’s here.  Ring?  No, he’s not wearing any ring.  He came over last night and said you and he were having some trouble, so I let him stay the night.  Well, sir, that’s up to him.  He’s welcome here for as long as he feels like staying.”

Lex made a face like he’d just swallowed a lemon, and Kal was tempted to listen to the other half of the conversation, except that he could guess pretty well at it anyways, and right now it probably included lots of cursing and excessive use of Lex’s last name.  Lex's expression cleared.

“Ah, hello Martha.  Oh, he’s fine, we’re having breakfast right now.  Sure, you can talk to him.”

Kal looks as if Lex has just thrown him under a bus, except he probably would look less betrayed, and not near so worried if that were the case.

 

**a/n: the chapters are so short because i'm pretty much posting them as i write, no beta or anything.  if you notice a mistake, continuity error, or something you'd like to know more about tell me about it in the comments.  i'm basing clark's memories of his family structure off of what i've read before in other fanfictions.**


	5. Chapter 5

“CLARK JEROME KENT!”

With a wince and a falsely cheerful “Hi Mom!” the reaming begins.

“Do you have any idea how worried your father and I were?  We called Chloe and Pete and they didn’t have a clue where you went after you-” Kal zones out strategically, taking the time to appreciate the sight of Lex, who’s bent over an honest to god P.D.A. and is probably doing something important about his company.

“—You father is about ready to file kidnapping charges—”

Kal barks out a laugh, and Lex looks up with the same startled expression that his mother is probably wearing.

“What’s so funny, young man?”

“That would never go through, and you know it Mom.  Even if everyone and their uncle didn’t already know Lex and I are best friends, you can’t even file me _missing_ until the twenty-four hour mark.”

“There is nothing funny about this situation!”

With a sigh, Kal concedes a point to his mother in what he’s sure will be a long ‘discussion’ about his recent behavior.

“I shouldn’t have bought all those things, it wasn’t right.”

“Damned right it was wrong of you!  You will be returning every bit of the stuff in the barn.”

Kals eyes go comically wide, and Lex mouths an exaggerated ‘What?’

‘She cursed,’ he mouths back, looking shocked.  Even Lex deigns to raise his eyebrows at that, and finally takes pity on the boy, motioning for the phone back.

Relief swarms into Kal’s face.  ‘ _Thank you._ ’

“Lexy wants to talk you, bye Mom.”  With superhuman haste Kal shoves the phone in the direction of his other half, earning a chuckle from the billionaire.

“Hello again, Mrs. Kent.  Yes, Martha, of course.  Would you go ahead and put me on speaker?  This is a conversation I feel you both ought to be present for.”

Kal’s eyes are suddenly the size of dinner plates.  ‘Really? _Now_?’

Lex gives a stiff nod, and tries to convey reassurance to the farmboy.  Then, with a deep breath for composure, he dives in.

 

**a/n: the next chapter should actually, once i write it, contain the bit of idea that lead me to start this story**


	6. Chapter 6

"So, I know Kal- ** _ark_ ** said something about possible kidnapping charges, and I just thought you should know that he was right to say it would never go through."

  
Johnathan Kent starts to list off all of the friends he has, on the force and in town in general, and Lex feels the need to cut him off at the phrase " _dare_ to threaten me with your big city lawyers-"

  
"Not at all, Mr. Kent.  I'm in no way threatening you with my family's wealth.  In fact, my money is by rights half K-Clark's unless I jump through quite a few hoops, legally speaking.  What I'm trying to say, Mr. and Mrs. Kent, is that with the FNP Law in effect, such a claim would never even see court."

  
"The FNP Law?" Johnathan asks, just as Martha takes in a sharp breath.

  
"Now, I'd really _like_ not to file until I've sorted out a suitable backstory, and have several of the Kawatche people willing to corroborate that they've been teaching Clark about his ' _heritage_.'  But I have the resources to push this through without that safety net, and if Clark will feel safer here then I'll do what it takes to ensure he has somewhere he feels comfortable."

  
"Lex, please, the spotlight that that would put on Clark- You have to know that that's-"

  
"Less than ideal, yes."

  
"Martha, what the _hell_ is the Luthor boy on about?"

  
Lex puts his end on speaker, too, so that Kal can hear the next part.

  
"Under the FNP Law, a minor who's reached the age of consent is entitled to spend  _forty-nine percent_ of their time outside of school with their of age Soulmate, regardless of parental approval.  All Lex would have to do is file, and-"

  
"-It's as good as shared custody," Lex concludes with a flashed smile they can't see.

  
"You **_bastard_**!  What kind of sick, conniving lie-"

  
"Johnathan-" Martha interrupts, obviously taking up residence less deeply in the well of denial than her husband seems to live.

  
"I'm afraid you've got the wrong impression," Lex cuts in, smooth as glass and smug as sin.  "You're once again looking for deceit where none lives."

  
There's a dial tone, and Kal giggles shamelessly.

  
"Dad just broke the phone," he informs the Luthor with a conspirital smile, "And Mom's reaching into the cabinet above the fridge where the alcohol's stored."

  
"They're taking it well, then."

  
"I'd say remarkably," Kal agrees, and the rest of breakfast is calm by comparison.


End file.
